I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.

Resuming Training

Tyler crashed tot he ground hard, grunting and rolling into a backward somersault, regaining his feet just in time to begin fending off Lightning's gunblade again. She had warned him that she wasn't going to hold back at all this time, and she hadn't lied. She was destroying him. He managed to knock her gunblade aside and stepped forward, slashing at her, only for her to flip over him, kicking him in the back and throwing him forward. He rolled over and instantly knocked her gunblade away, then slammed an elbow into her side, throwing her off of him. He was glad he knew she could take anything he threw at her, because he wasn't being any more gentle than her, not that it mattered. He was the only one who was going to walk away with decent bruises.

Lighting rolled to her feet and spun, lunging back and ramming her shoulder into Tyler's back as he was standing, sending him sprawling to the ground before putting her blade to his throat. He sighed, panting for breath as his head spun from exertion and she stabbed her gunblade into the ground beside him before standing and wiping some sweat from her forehead.

"Better," Lightning said. "Magic next."

Tyler nodded, standing, and raised his keyblade as Lightning tossed a small black cube off to the side, the cube flashing and leaving several magic replicas of basic Heartless. They moved in the same jerky motions as the real ones, but they did nothing else but stand there looking around. Tyler focused and fired a gravity spell, the ball of magic forming over the Heartless and sunk, flattening them, only for them to rise as they reformed.

"Fire," Lightning instructed.

Tyler swung his keyblade down and launched a fireball at them, but the explosion was small, barely larger than a normal Fire spell, even though he'd been trying for Firaga. He sighed and Lightning began to work him through all of the elements. Wind and Lightning he had down, and Gravity was second nature, but Blizzard, Water, Fire, and Ground he was struggling, to put it nicely. He shoved as much magic into the keyblade as he could as he tried for the eighth time to at least cast a Fira, and successfully launched a Firaga, but the recoil from it rocked him back a step, his keyblade swing up over him and behind him.

"Think fast!" Lightning suddenly shouted, sending a ball of compressed wind at him, the Aero spell speeding between them in under a second.

He shouted in surprise, his left arm snapping out and forming thick crystalline barrier formed of hexagonal panels, and the Aero spell exploded against it harmlessly, the wing all flooding around the barrier and barely more than a breeze hitting Tyler. Tyler stared at his hand in surprise, then at the keyblade.

"Impressive," Lightning said. "That barrier was extremely powerful."

"How did I…" he looked between the keyblade and his hand again before holding his hand out toward the targets, focusing and launching a fireball the size of his entire upper body at the targets, the fireball erupting into a massive explosion that scorched the ground. Lightning's eyes widened as Tyler's jaw fell open.

"Let me see your keyblade," Lightning said, Tyler passing it to her.

Lightning stared at it for a moment before focusing and holding it out toward the targets, the keyblade glowing for a moment, only for Lightning to frown and lower her hand, staring at it. "That's odd."

"What?" Tyler asked.

"It might just be because the keyblade doesn't recognize me as its wielder, but it feels like it's fighting my magic," Lightning said.

"I always thought that was just because I was trying to cast it through a weapon rather than my body," Tyler said. "Although, now that I think about it, it's been getting more noticeable lately. And I think the only times I didn't feel it at all were when I was wielding the light keyblade I used in Peter Pan's world."

Lightning nodded. "We'll ask Oswald about it later. For now, let's try sparring again, this time with weak spells." She waved a hand and a thin barrier formed over them both, which would protect them from spells and each other's blades so they could spar without holding back. "For the time being, just practice using spells through your left arm rather than the keyblade."

Tyler nodded and readied himself, then shot forward the moment Lightning shifted. Last time, he'd let her have the first move and had regretted it immediately when she began to beat him black and blue for a solid four minutes before he could recover from his surprise. This time, however, she had apparently meant for him to attack, because she spun out of the way of his strike and smacked him across the back with his with the back edge of her gunblade, sending him staggering forward.

"Don't rush into conflict," Lightning scolded, having told him to not wait for his enemy to start last time. "Again."

Tyler sighed, turning to her and readied himself again. She shifted, then smirked and shot forward, clearing the distance in an instant and slashed at him, Tyler managing to deflect the blade, like the first time, then, also like the first time, she flipped, kicking at him. He ducked under it this time, slashing upward at her, only for her to block his blade, and land on her feet, dropping and sweeping her feet out from under him. He crashed to the ground hard, then rolled, deflecting her blade before blasting her in the gut with an Aero spell, throwing her backward. He shoved himself to his feet and grabbed his keyblade with both hands just as Lightning fired a weak fire spell at him. he swore, letting go of the keyblade with his left hand, but just as he got his hand halfway, the fireball exploded against his chest, hurling him backward. He crashed down hard and rolled backward, then stood, left hand snapping up and forming as powerful a barrier as the first time, blocking several fire spells. He let the barrier fade, but just as he did, Lightning stepped out of the smoke, slamming a kick into the side of his head. He staggered to the side, raising his keyblade to block her blade, only for her to slash it out of his hand, then fire a Blizzard, a spike of ice speeding between them, his barrier forming a split second too late, resulting in the ice shattering against his chest, hurling him backward.

He bounced off his upper shoulders, then flipped over and slammed back-first into a tree, groaning. Lightning sighed, straightening, just as he summoned his keyblade, using it to push himself up. Then, the tip of his keyblade flashed green, his body shining green for a moment before he charged. Lightning raised an eyebrow and moved to step around his slash, only for him to pivot at the last second, his blade flashing around and crashing into hers hard. She smirked, nodding approvingly, then shoved his blade away, stabbing at him several times, Tyler avoiding the first, then deflecting the rest. As she stepped forward to slash, he spun around her, slashing at her from behind, but she ducked and spun, avoiding it, then slashed upward, her blade slamming into the barrier over his body, hurling him backward. As he crashed down, he rolled backward to his feet just as she fired an Aero spell. His left hand snapped up from his keyblade to form a barrier, only for the spell to slam into his palm and explode, blasting him backward. He groaned in frustration as he lay on the ground. It was no good. He was too slow to be able to get a barrier up in time. How was he supposed to protect himself with his left hand without being able to have a hand free to form a barrier?

He looked up at Lightning as she stepped up over him and knelt. "I'm okay."

"I know," Lightning said. "Let's take a break for a bit. We've been going all morning, and all yesterday, too."

Tyler shook his head. "I'm good. I can keep going."

"Tyler, I need a break," Lightning said. "Let's get lunch. Then we can continue beating each other into the dirt."

"Each other?" Tyler frowned. "I haven't landed a single hit, beside that one elbow earlier."

Lightning shook her head. "You're not giving yourself enough credit."

She held out her hand and he sighed, accepting her help up, groaning and stretching his suddenly sore and cramping torso, then walked out of the clearing with her. They were on a mountain beside the resort, away from anyone they might disturb, so it was an hour hike down from the clearing to the resort, and by the time they had reached it, Tyler's legs were on fire. They walked to an open-air restaurant and Lightning headed for the bathroom.

"Oh hey," Fang said from where she was washing her hands. "Taking a break?"

"Yes," Lightning said. "We're getting some lunch before we continue." She shook her head. "You wouldn't believe how well he's doing. We were at it all yesterday, and then again all this morning, and he's still going. It's ridiculous. I think he's got even more energy than me."

Fang shook her head, eyes wide. "He really is something, huh? What's it been, like six months total of training, including the battles he's been in?"

"And he's already surpassed you," Lightning said.

"Has he?" Fang asked, grinning.

"Oh yeah," Lightning said. "I'm actually struggling to keep ahead of him. I don't think he's realized it yet, but I've actually lost count of the number of times he's almost beaten me."

Fang shook her head. "I kind of want to go a round with him then. I'd like to see if you're right."

"If you did, it'd probably be good for his confidence," Lightning said. "Feel free to stop by in between bouts of public indecency with Vanille."

Fang laughed. "Any progress with his magic? Serah mentioned you were going to work on that too."

"Oh, yeah," Lightning said, frowning. "He used a barrier with his free hand stronger than with his keyblade. Then a perfect Firaga with the same hand when he could barely get a weak Fira with his keyblade. I borrowed his Keyblade to try and cast a spell through, but it felt like it was resisting my magic. I thought maybe it was just because I'm not its rightful wielder, but he said he's always felt that with his keyblade, he just didn't think anything of it. And if I remember correctly, the keyblade helped at first when he was learning control."

Fang nodded, also frowning. "That's a little weird."

Lightning nodded. "He said it's been getting worse lately. It would explain why he's been losing power with his spells."

Fang nodded. "Yeah, I noticed that too. Then after he got depressed, his magic just gave out."

Lightning nodded. "Part of that is that he's lost the willpower he used to have, but he's starting to get that back finally."

Fang nodded. "Well, I'm going to go have a chat with him."

"Alright," Lightning said. "I'm going to use the bathroom, then I'll join you."

Fang nodded and walked out to the table where Tyler was waiting, massaging his sore arm muscles. "How's it going?" Fang grinned as Tyler grimaced. "You look like you've been just about beaten to death."

"She wasn't kidding when she said she wasn't going to hold back," Tyler said. "She's incredible. I can't touch her."

Fang laughed. "Well yeah. Light's the strongest person I've ever met. Even Caius only beat her because she was distracted by something during their fight. I may be able to fight on level with her when we spar, but if we were both serious, she'd destroy me. That's the way she is. She holds back to a level that she knows her opponent can handle, even against enemies. She goes all out against the Heartless, but otherwise, I've only seen her go all out when it was a fight that you were involved in, like against that guy with the super long katana, and Caius's Heartless."

"I'm seriously jealous," Tyler sighed, just as a waiter brought over two glasses of water, asking what they wanted to eat, Fang politely saying she was just keeping the seat warm for a friend and Tyler deciding to wait until Lightning got back.

"What were you saying?" Fang asked.

"I'm jealous," Tyler said again. "She's so incredible and I'm always getting in the way, it feels like."

"Oh come on," Fang snorted. "You know that's not true. You're too hard on yourself. You're not weak. After a few months of traying, you're already as good as me, and you're actually giving Lightning a hard time."

"I doubt it," Tyler said. "Like I said, I couldn't touch her."

"And?" Fang asked. "Tyler, in a real fight without protective barriers to keep you from hurting each other, you normally only have to get them once, unless they're monsters, in which case you won't be fighting alone anyway. And that's not the point. Tyler, think about your progress. In months, you've grown as skilled as Lightning and I are after training our whole lives!"

"It's not enough!" Tyler snapped. "I need to be stronger! If I'm weaker and less skilled than Lightning, how am I supposed to protect her when even she's not good enough!? And don't give me that bullshit line about how it's better to have more average fighters than it is a few elite ones, because we both know that's bullshit! You all were the elites in your world."

"Exactly," Fang said. "And you're as skilled as we are."

"But it's still not enough!" Tyler said. "Even combined, the Heartless are stronger! I...I want to be able to protect Lightning, but I can't do that if I'm not strong enough to even protect myself from them."

"But Tyler, you have defended me," Lightning said, stepping up to the table and frowning, sitting in an empty chair. "You defended me in that video game world."

"And then you used too much magic trying to save me from nearly dying from being too weak to defend you properly, and you ended up comatose while I almost died anyway," Tyler said. "Then in the world where women were falling asleep because of that one prince being controlled by a Heartless, you were caught and put in a coma for a second time."

"And both times I was comatose, you saved my life," Lightning said. "The first time you fought Caius for it, someone who's almost as strong as me, and the second time, as you might remember, was the start of our relationship."

"Saving you after you're already put in danger because I failed isn't the same thing as protecting you," Tyler said. "It's cleaning up my mistakes."

Lightning sighed, taking his hand. "Tyler, you don't have to be the strongest person alive to protect someone. You don't even have to be stronger than them. The point of protecting someone isn't so that they'll never be in danger. The point of protecting someone is to save them when they are, and to keep them from dying. Because of you, I'm still alive. Because you have protected me, and you have saved me. You're not as weak as you think."

Tyler stared at the table in silence and Lightning sighed, squeezing his hands.

"I'm going to head back to Vanille," Fang said finally. "See you around you two."

"See you," Lightning said as Tyler nodded mutely.

After a few minutes, the waiter returned and Tyler and Lightning ordered, then ate in silence before heading back to the mountain. Once there, they both quickly fell back into the rhythm of training, Lightning once again beating Tyler black and blue.

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